Related papers: Black holes without firewalls
For distant observers black holes are trapped spacetime domains bounded by apparent horizons. We review properties of the near-horizon geometry emphasizing the consequences of two common implicit assumptions of semiclassical physics. The…
In theories where physics depends on a global foliation of space-time, a black hole's horizon is surrounded by an "eternity skin": a pile-up of space-like leaves that in the far-out region cover all times from the start of collapse to…
Black and white holes play remarkably contrasting roles in general relativity versus observational astrophysics. While there is overwhelming observational evidence for the existence of compact objects that are "cold, dark, and heavy", which…
Recently we pointed out that the black hole interior operators can be reconstructed by using the Hayden-Preskill recovery protocols. Building on this observation, we propose a resolution of the firewall problem by presenting a…
We construct a model which illustrates the conjecture of fuzzball complementarity. In the fuzzball paradigm, the black hole microstates have no interior, and radiate unitarily from their surface through quanta of energy $E\sim T$. But…
In the fuzzball paradigm the information paradox is resolved because the black hole is replaced by an object with no horizon. One may therefore ask if observations can distinguish a traditional hole from a fuzzball. We find: (a) It is very…
Recently, several ways of obtaining observational proof of the existence of black-hole horizons have been proposed. We argue here that such proof is fundamentally impossible: observations can provide arguments, sometimes very strong ones,…
It has been suggested [1] that the resolution of the information paradox for evaporating black holes is that the holes are surrounded by firewalls, bolts of outgoing radiation that would destroy any infalling observer. Such firewalls would…
Dynamical, non-asymptotically flat black holes are best characterized by their apparent horizons. Cosmological black hole solutions of General Relativity exhibit two types of apparent horizon behaviours which, thus far, appeared to be…
We investigate the interiors of 3+1 dimensional asymptotically flat charged and rotating black holes as described by observers who fall into the black holes at late times, long after any perturbations of the exterior region have decayed. In…
Event Horizon, a null hypersurface defining the boundary of the black hole region of a spacetime, is not particularly useful for evolving black holes since it is non-local in time. Instead, one uses the more tangible concept of Apparent…
We argue that the complementarity picture, as interpreted as a reference frame change represented in quantum gravitational Hilbert space, does not suffer from the "firewall paradox" recently discussed by Almheiri, Marolf, Polchinski, and…
Black holes are presumed to have an ideal ability to absorb and keep matter. Whatever comes close to the event horizon, a boundary separating the inside region of a black hole from the outside world, inevitably goes in and remains inside…
Gravity warps space and time into a funnel and generates a black hole when a cosmic body undergoes a catastrophic collapse. What can one say about the interior of a black hole? The important point is that inside a black hole the space…
In recent work on black hole entropy in non-perturbative quantum gravity, an action for the black hole sector of the phase space is introduced and (partially) quantized. We give a number of observations on this and related works. In…
Horizons and bound photon orbits are defining features of black holes that translate into key features of black hole images. We present a purely geometric proof that spherically symmetric, isolated objects with horizons in gravity theories…
Classically, black holes admit maximal interior volumes that grow asymptotically linearly in time. We show that such volumes remain large when Hawking evaporation is taken into account. Even if a charged black hole approaches the extremal…
Studying the threshold of black hole formation via numerical evolution has led to the discovery of fascinating nonlinear phenomena. Power-law mass scaling, aspects of universality, and self-similarity have now been found for a large variety…
The firewall paradox, a puzzle in black hole physics, depends on an implicit assumption: a rule that allows the infalling and the outside observer to combine their perspectives. However, a recent extension of the Wigner's friend paradox…
Black holes are often characterized by event horizons, following the literature that laid the mathematical foundations of the subject in the 1970s. However black hole event horizons have two fundamental conceptual limitations. First, they…